Obama skewers media over Trump coverage

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama on Monday challenged the US media stop chasing ratings and take on 2016 election candidates who are willing to “lie out loud” and whose campaigns are “untethered from reason.” Without calling out Donald Trump by name, Obama used a journalism award ceremony in Washington to deliver his toughest condemnation yet of the caustic tone of the presidential election campaign and the media coverage of it. Training fire on television networks’ often breathless coverage of Trump’s campaign and wall-to-wall interviews with the controversial businessman, Obama said “a job well done is about more than just handing someone a microphone.” He said the electorate would be better served if the media were to “probe and to question and to dig deeper and demand more.” “It would be better served if billions of dollars in free media (coverage) came with serious accountability,” he added. That was one in a string of clear references to the former reality TV star, who has leveraged his fame to appear almost constantly on television news.